Category: The 6th Loving Word – Value Life

Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV
¹ Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

We must encounter Jesus in Gethsemane – the One who took the cup of wrath upon himself. He can take our anger too, and turn it into forgiveness and reconciliation, so that we follow him to the cross. When we are crucified with Christ, so is our anger, so that we no longer live, but we live by faith in the Son of God who loves us. This is so that we can lead others toward life. Let’s pray for our churches, that we would be a witness of God’s love and kindness to a world marked by sin and death.

Pray for our missions in Puerto Rico, Paris, and Kenya, as we go as a church, may we live in the fullness of God overflowing wherever we go.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you took the cup of wrath upon yourself for sinners like us. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us. May our families, homes, and missional groups be a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God . In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “We Praise You ” by Matt Redman (click here)

-LB

Let’s read aloud together the following passages:

Ezekiel 36:26 NIV
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung says it well this way: “The sixth commandment not only prohibits violent acts of murder but all violent emotions and intentions of the heart (Matt. 5:21–26). You and I can be 100 percent murder free but still face the wrath of God if our life is marked by anger, bitterness, invective, insult, and rage. We show it in the way we speak to our spouse, when we silently judge, when we explode at our children over the simplest things, and when somebody drives in front of us and goes too slow, and you would think that they had cursed your whole family for all time. Jesus says that you will not get out until you pay the last penny. That’s how serious anger is.” [Kevin DeYoung, The 10 Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018), 93–105.]

Let’s declare Ezekiel 36:26 over our own hearts. We need a heart of flesh, not hardened by anger, but softened by the Lord to receive a tender heart in Christ.

Prayer: Lord, only you can give me a new heart and put a new spirit in me. I need your touch today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me” by City Alight (click here)

-LB

Matthew 5:23-24 NIV
²³ “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

1 John 3:15 NLT
¹⁵ Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.

“Jesus expands the meaning of the command to not murder with anger towards a brother or sister, for they will also be brought to judgment. The reason we can expand the 6^th loving word as something beyond physical taking of life, though that is clearly the most outward level of the command, is that Jesus approaches the commands as a matter of the heart and what occurs inwardly, not just the eventual result of a murderous heart.

Therefore, Jesus is bringing judgment to what is usually not judged in the world—which is the heart level.  Grant Osborne says that “Jesus goes deeper than murder to the cause of murder, anger. Anger is murder in the mind (1 John 3:15), so Jesus shows that a similar fate awaits the angry person as awaits the murderer.” [excerpt from P. Nate’s Message]

As we enter the Lord’s presence, the Spirit reveals the areas of our hearts that need to be resolved before the Lord.

Prayer: Lord, I confess to you the areas of my heart that need to be forgiven and washed. May I enter the sanctuary of your presence so that the light of Christ would shine, bringing breakthrough and salvation into my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “Glorious Day” by Passion (click here)

-LB

Matthew 5:21-24 NIV
²¹ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. 

The theologian Christopher Wright comments this about the sixth loving word: “Human beings are made in God’s image, an image that no human has the right to destroy without the maker’s authority. But God does have that authority. Human life is a gift from God and belongs to God, and no human has the right to destroy the gift or steal what belongs to God.”

“Therefore, the one who is angry takes the position of destroying the image of the one who belongs to God. This goes beyond insult to dangerous judgment. According to Jesus, this is the trajectory of human anger, which violates the sixth loving word.” [excerpt from P. Nate’s Message]

Let’s read aloud together the following passage and then pray according to it:

Ephesians 4:31-5:2 NIV
³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. ^5:1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ² and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Prayer: Lord, may we walk in the way of love like Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s worship to the song “I Need You More” by Bethel Music (click here)

-LB